Exhibition Series: FACES
Women Suffragists

The Broome County Arts Council at 81 State Street, Suite 501, Binghamton, New York will be showcasing a series of classical realist life-size portrait drawings created by Beginning Drawing students taught by Associate Professor Evans that explore notable iconic suffragists throughout history rendered in charcoal, pencil, and mixed media.

Associate Professor Patricia Evans offered to have her ART 115: Beginning Drawing students research the history of suffragists including birth and death records, and individual contributions towards the vote for women for the SUNY Broome Suffrage Anniversary sub-group of the BTSAC in 2017; culminating in a profound lesson on social and cultural history. Her students enthusiastically took on the challenge of researching the individual roles beginning in the nineteenth-century, and then began the process of creating a likeness based on archival photographs. Catherine Ruch Bartoo, a local woman’s right activist, art teacher, and musician is featured in the display; her portrait donated to the SUNY Broome art permanent collection.

At the invitation of Associate Professor Margherita Rossi, President of the DWSTFL, Associate Professor Evans delivered, installed, and presented the drawings to the Fifth Annual Conference of the Democratic Women of the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes last summer from June 2 through June 3, in Seneca Falls, New York. Keynote speakers included Congresswoman Grace Meng and Louise Bernikow, noted author of six books on this subject.